Part: Part Ten - Adjusting to Different Stacks

Adjust to the stacks behind you

Pre-flop
Blinds 400 / 800 (100 ante)Pot 2,100 (2.6 BB)Re-jammer behind • tighten your opensCOA♦9♣● 20,000 (25 BB)YOUyou have ~25 BBBTN● 50,000 (62.5 BB)Big re-jammerjams a lotSB● 20,000 (25 BB)posts 400 (0.5 BB)BB● 20,000 (25 BB)posts 800 (1 BB)D

You have about 25 BB in the cutoff with A♦9♣. Directly behind you sits a big stack who re-jams (three-bet shoves) constantly and covers you.

~25 BB in the cutoff with A♦9♣, a frequent re-jammer behind. Best?

WhyA-9 offsuit opens fine in isolation, but the big stack on your left re-jams constantly and covers you, so opening here means routinely facing a shove you aren't strong enough to call. That's lighting chips on fire one min-raise at a time. Fold now and reserve your opens for hands that can stand the heat - or for when that re-jammer is already out of the pot.
What happensYou muck A-9 and deny the re-jammer his easy leverage. The right open depends less on your two cards than on who gets to punish them.
You let the seat behind you set your range: with a covering re-jammer on your left, a fine-in-a-vacuum open becomes a chip leak, so you only open hands that can take a shove.

Your opening range is only as wide as the players behind you allow. A frequent re-jammer who covers you turns marginal opens into forced folds - so tighten to hands that can survive a shove.